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'It's a screwdriver, not a popsicle,' says reporter at San Bernardino shooters' house

A Sunday Times reporter stands accused of popsicle theft on Friday after he was seen standing outside the San Bernardino shooters' residence carrying an object that looked like an orange-flavored frozen ice pop.

Not so, he says.

The object in question was, in fact, a screwdriver that the reporter, Toby Harnden, used to assist the landlord as he broke into the house. The doors had been sealed with plywood by the FBI and the landlord, Doyle Miller, was set on letting dozens of members of the media inside.

"It's a screwdriver, not a popsicle," Harnden tweeted as many expressed amazement that a journalist had stolen dessert from an alleged terrorist. "I was helping [the] landlord, who was right beside me, take off the board." He added: "I can confirm that no frozen treats were involved in my assisting the landlord."

The reporter was at the front of a pack of reporters who pressed through the door and into the suspects' house once the plyboard was removed, in a bizarre scene that was also broadcast on live television to millions across the country.

Reporters aired footage that showed baby toys, personal documentation and copies of the Quran that the suspects had left behind, raising all sorts of legal and ethical questions that are still being debated.

Image: MSNBC

But it was "Popsicle Man" that sparked many viewers' curiosities, as they wondered why it would be that a news reporter would take part in such an examination only to leave with a piece of flavored ice.

For his part, Harnden said on Twitter that the landlord told them the FBI and police "had finished with the scene & given him permission to go back into his property." An FBI spokesperson confirmed that to Mashable, saying they had concluded their investigation at the scene.

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